The company spun out of Google in October 2015,[2][3][4][5] soon after Google's announcement of its restructuring as Alphabet Inc.[6][7] During the spinout, Niantic announced that Google, Nintendo, and The Pokémon Company would invest up to $30 million[8] in it to support the growth of the company and its products.[9] In February 2016, Niantic announced that it secured an additional $5 million[10] in Series A funding including investment[11] from venture capital firms Alsop Louie Partners and You & Mr. Jones Brandtech Ventures, as well as angel investors Lucas Nealan, Cyan Banister, and Scott Banister.[12] While adding more support for the growth of the company, this investment enabled Niantic to bring in strategic industry pioneers including the addition of Gilman Louie to its board.[13]

In November 2017, Niantic was reported to have raised $200 million in Series B funding from multiple investors, led by Spark Capital.[14]

In November 2017, it was announced that Niantic acquired Evertoon, an app which allows users to make short, personalized films.[15] According to the company’s announcement, the acquisition is meant to help build social systems. At the time of the acquisition, Evertoon was only 18 months old and had only 5 employees.[16]

In February 2018, Niantic announced that it had acquired augmented reality company Escher Reality. Hanke stated that Niantic planned to allow third-party developers to build AR games similar to Pokémon Go.[17]

Niantic's first augmented reality game Ingress was initially made available on Android by invitation only in November 2012 then released publicly in October 2013. An iOS version was released in July 2014.

In September 2015, it was announced that Niantic was developing Pokémon Go in partnership with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for iOS and Android devices.[32] The game was initially released in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States in July 2016 (and released to much of the rest of the world throughout the remainder of 2016), where it became an overnight global phenomenon,[33] significantly increasing the use and visibility of augmented reality technology.[34] In addition to topping app store charts in most regions, Apple Inc. announced that Pokémon Go had become the most downloaded app in a first week ever, which was topped by Super Mario Run later that year.[35][36] Reports indicated that users were spending more time on Pokémon Go than on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Tinder, and Instagram.[37][38] In one month, Pokémon Go was downloaded more than 100 million times, with daily revenues exceeding $10 million.[39] Exactly two months after its launch, at Apple's September keynote, John Hanke announced that Pokémon Go exceeded 500 million downloads worldwide and that players around the world had walked over 4.6 billion kilometers.[40] By December, it was announced that the kilometer distance achieved in September had nearly doubled to over 8.7 billion kilometers, meaning that players had collectively walked further than the distance to Pluto.[41] By the end of February 2017, Pokémon Go had surpassed over 650 million downloads.[42] During Pokémon Go's Adventure Week in-game promo in May 2017, Niantic announced that players had collectively walked over 15.8 billion kilometers, roughly the distance from Earth past the edge of the solar system.[43] On June 8, 2017, it was revealed that Pokémon Go had been downloaded over 750 million times globally.[44]